Students left out as scholarship providers ‘boxed in by circumstances’

Students looking for college scholarships are going to have a harder time this year as providers, hammered by falling investment returns and declining philanthropic support, cut back.

The Fulfillment Fund, a nonprofit that works with Los Angeles public high school students, has reduced the number of college scholarships offered over the last three years by nearly half and has tightened requirements students must meet, said Maria Espinosa, director of program operations.

The Davis United World College Scholars Program, which last year began paying $20,000 per scholarship recipient at colleges that had at least five scholarship winners enrolled, has cut the amount in half, returning to pre-2008 levels.

“We’ve just been boxed in by circumstances we didn’t anticipate,” said Philip Geier, the program’s executive director. He says he hopes to increase the scholarship payments in the future.

The recession has led foundations, corporations, state governments and colleges themselves to reduce their support of providers of scholarships. In recent months programs have been reduced or canceled outright.

The cuts come as economic conditions make it harder for families to pay for college and as more unemployed people look for money for retraining.

The result will probably be a greater role for federal aid programs in supporting students, instead of private scholarship providers and state governments, said Terry Hartle, senior vice president for government and public affairs at the American Council on Education, whose members are colleges and universities.

“What you’re seeing are some shifts taking place,” Hartle said. Overall, there may be more aid money available as federal aid programs expand, he said, “but some individuals may find themselves in much worse situations this year than last year.”

State grant programs have also taken a beating.

In Pennsylvania, the maximum amount available to resident college students has fallen to $4,120, from about $4,700 last year, according to the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency. California, confronting a severe budget crisis, is weighing the shutdown of a state scholarship program benefiting hundreds of thousands of students.

The New York Times Co., which offers a scholarship to New York City high school students, this year cut the number of scholarships it provided to 12 from 20.

No one has a complete list of all scholarship providers, let alone a database that tracks how much money those providers pay out every year. But companies that administer and track scholarships say that a downward trend is clear.

According to Scholarship America, a nonprofit company that administers scholarship programs for about 1,200 providers, less money is available for students. At the same time, the number of applications is rising, said Janine Fugate, a spokeswoman.

ACT, a nonprofit company that manages and designs scholarship programs for foundations and companies, has seen a decline of just under 5 percent in total scholarship dollars available, according to a spokesman.

Peterson’s, an online college preparation site, found that although the number of scholarships rose to 1.7 million in 2008, from 1.4 million a year earlier, the average amount awarded fell nearly 7 percent, to $4,300 from $4,607.

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